I've been back for a week and a half now, been to the barn a few times...

Most of the water pipes broke over the crazy Christmas weather, so Robert's been working mainly on getting the automatic waterers back on line. I've spent quite a bit of time talking to him, observing how the Wirsbo plumbing works, and turning horses out since he's been busy keeping everyone fed and watered rather than worked.

With the turning-horses-out thing, I've been mostly sensible. I've sat on Reno and Star in halter and lead. I worked with Luca on standing for mounting but did NOT actually get on him (oh god that was hard to resist). Reno decided to jump over a stack of cones a few times, though I don't know if that was for fun or just from poor planning. Keno ran like an idiot for a bit and then followed me around while I picked the arena and raked out his roll spots.

Today I turned Reno out and then hopped on him (with a helmet and bridle! zomg!). He was really good, other than being distracted by Keno screaming his head off. We walked and trotted around with only one spook-in-place, so he's doing nicely. We did work on mounting and it still needs more work. I think his issue is two-fold: 1) he always walks forward after we drop the cart in the shaft loops, so he's used to going forward- he's just almost always crosstied so it doesn't matter. 2) He's worse under saddle than bareback, I think because he's got substantially more weight on one side for a bit and doesn't like being unbalanced.

Actually tacked up Keno and rode, he was a little bit of a jerk but it can't be just that he wants to canter, so I need to think about my "please round yourself" versus canter cues. He did figure out that rounding at the walk was wayyyyy easier than sidepassing to centerline and back. Good for him, I suppose. My new bridle's too big for him in the noseband but that mostly just means I'm leaving the flash off. We've done a couple rides. He was being really bad about mounting and being in the arena in general. I think he knows I'm in charge when under saddle, but he uses that chance when he's tacked up but I'm not on him to be scary and dance around.

Turns out a few choice smacks settle him down a LOT. I hadn't carried a crop around on him in months but that's back now, at least for a while. He was getting semi-dangerous again and I really should've addressed it sooner. At least it seems to be 90% cleared up.

I bought a dressage saddle for Luca with an x-wide tree. We're hoping it fits and we'll start up work with him as soon as Robert has some more time.

I also seem to have added a project. To my eye, Nicky (POA) hasn't been doing well at cart. She hates things under her tail and behind her legs, so the tire's been an issue. I think she might make a decent trail/endurance horse for a small adult or intermediate/experienced child once she's got some miles on her. So I figured we'd back her, why not?

I took Nicky out for about ten minutes today to see where we were at. I worked with her about a year ago and got her standing by the mounting block, letting me lean over her and put some weight on without much effort. Today she didn't care at all about the mounting block, but got really defensive when I touched her back- hunched, backed away, kicked at one point. So she got sent out at a vigorous trot for a couple minutes, then tried again. It took about three tries before she figured out that standing still was the way to go. I leaned over her, rubbed over her, she turned around to look but her ears were forward and her eyes were pretty soft, just curious. I put all my weight on her for a second and she leaned to compensate for the unbalanced weight, but didn't move her feet an inch and seemed pretty happy with the whole thing.

Tomorrow I think I'll lean over and have someone lead. I don't know if I want Robert or Gillian to lead, though. She respects the halter (she's literally fallen down and rolled over if she's spooked and hit the end of the rope with very little pressure on my end) so it's not likely to be a strength issue. She listens to Robert but it seems fairly grudging. Gillian's an unknown quantity for her, so I suspect there will be a brief trial period where she tries to see what she can get away with, and then will settle down.